The Star and the Silver Birch
by ladymal
Summary: When Saehin Lavellan won't wake after Haven is destroyed, Solas goes into the Fade to help. Part of my series, 'The Wolf and the Wild Dalish Elf'. One-shot. Cover art by mrgabel on tumblr.


Pale blue light played under his fingertips and over Saehin's bandaged shoulder as Solas cast. It was still swollen- unsurprising given its original condition- and he knew it would be several days before the sling could be removed. Otherwise, she was recovered and no signs lingered of her ordeal. And yet, she still dreamed.

"Solas," Seeker Cassandra's voice rang out quietly from the entrance of the tent, "a moment of your time?"

"Of course."

Solas let the healing spell dissipate and moved the thick woolen blankets back into place over Saehin's sleeping form. As she had for the last day and night, she lay still and silent and unaware of the world around her. He picked up his staff and rose to his feet before stepping outside into the night.

The blizzard had passed but in its wake was a bitter cold that the numerous fires around their camp did little to chase away. Solas leaned on his staff as he followed the Seeker to a secluded corner where they could not be overheard. He understood her caution. The Inquisition had been dealt a serious blow and they were still left reeling from it. If rumors of their Herald's state were allowed to spread, they would catch like wildfire and leave their entire organization in ashes.

"How is she?"

The question was familiar seeing as she had asked it frequently since Saehin had stumbled into camp wounded and nearly dead from frost. His answer was also familiar.

"Unchanged, Seeker."

"Did that creature do something to her mind?" Cassandra made a frustrated noise and if he had not known her better, he might have believed her severe frown to be one of anger rather than concern. "She had been very confused when we found her. We had assumed it was from the cold but perhaps..."

"No," Solas assured her. "I sense no magic other than her own and her injuries are well healed. It is merely a condition of the spirit."

"I am not certain I know what that means, Solas."

"It means that she sleeps because she wishes to. Nothing more," he explained calmly. "When the body has undergone great stress, it's not so uncommon for a mage to slip into dreams. I am confident that she will wake on her own, given time."

Cassandra continued to frown as she glanced over to where Saehin slept sheltered by canvas. Finally, she sighed.

"Then I will trust your judgment," she said. "Though I hope that she will wake soon. We may not be able to afford to stay here much longer."

"Be patient, Seeker," he told her and he dipped his head in a nod. "We are safe for now."

"I would very much like to think so."

She walked away and after a moment, Solas turned back to Saehin's tent. Once inside, he lowered himself onto the ground beside her pallet and listened to her breathing as he set down his staff between them. It was slow. Faint but steady and the flickering of her eyes behind their lids indicated that she had merely gone far into the Fade.

Her hair had slipped out of its braids and lay half caught and snarled in the leather thong that fastened it. With careful fingers, he untangled the dark strands from the cord. The small silver bells that hung from the ends chimed softly as he wrapped it around his wrist. He would return it once she had awakened but for now, it was as good a place as any to ensure it was not lost.

Frowning, he considered. She had not been in the Fade so long that she was in any danger of staying in it permanently but he couldn't claim to be unconcerned. He believed her more than capable of awakening without help, yes, but he _could_ help if he chose. All it required was to step into her dreams.

He had become fond of her during their time together and it was a struggle to not seek her out simply for the pleasure of her company. She was curious and clever and possessed a dark wit that had surprised him when first he'd heard it. And she seemed fond of him, as well. It had been useful when he had needed to know what sort of person now controlled the Anchor but now, it was something he had not anticipated.

Originally, when he had seen her chained and dying from the magic of the foci, he had expected little from her and instead, she had changed everything. She had survived, for one, but it was more than simple survival. No other Dalish elf was as open-minded and willing to learn as she was. To consider opinions outside her own. And no other Dalish had ever met him and accepted a flat-ear as one of their own. She was unique and he wondered what more she could be, if simply given the opportunity.

Solas laid down and breathed deep. He closed his eyes and when he opened them again, it was to the world of the Fade.

* * *

It was peaceful where she was; in a stand of white birch trees that swayed gently in the warm breeze. Saehin walked among them and her bare feet were caressed by soft grass. Through the branches above her, she glimpsed a field of glimmering stars in a dark sky. The sound of the sea murmured like voices in the distance and she turned away from it, further into the grove.

She missed her clan and the quiet and the solitude she was allowed there. The sense that she was not truly alone despite never being as close as she might have had she been born among them. They were her clan and she was their First and they were pieces of the same whole. In Haven, there were always people, as loud and bustling as a hive of bees, but she was not one of them. She was their Herald and an elf and she would forever be separate for it.

Though, even her fellow elves wanted little to do with her. It was not unfamiliar- she'd had few friends during her life, if any, and spent most of her days on her own- but she had hoped, outsiders as they all were...Well, she should not have assumed. She knew well enough that her people were fractured and that they all had their own opinions on who was elvhen and who was not.

She watched the stars spin lazily and the trees picked up their roots to move out of her way as she strolled by. Solas had seemed willing to indulge her in conversation, at least, but he had grown distant in recent days. _More distant_, she amended. It had always been a challenge to convince him to speak about himself but now, it was an impossibility and even discussions on magic and the Fade did not come easily.

_I should not have kissed him_. She sighed to herself. It had been an innocent thing- a touch to his cheek and nothing more- but it seemed to have ruined the fragile companionship she had managed to form between them.

"You have slept a long time."

Saehin stopped and brought her gaze down from the sky to see Solas step out from behind a tree, moving aside a leafy branch as he did. He didn't look as he had when she had seen him last- garbed in battle robes and spattered in the strange blood of the red templars- but instead wore a dark cloak whose hood had been pulled up to shadow his face.

"Have I?" She frowned in thought. "Perhaps I should wake, then."

"If that is what you wish," he said lightly.

The sea hummed and rumbled behind her and her shoulders tensed.

"No." She shook her head "No, not yet. But soon."

She continued walking and he fell in step at her side. They were silent as they passed through the trees and Saehin soaked in his presence like a plant did the sun. He reminded her of the forest. Hushed and peaceful until you learned how to see and it became alive before you.

The ground beneath her toes became soft and feathery grass and fat bulrushes began to spring up among the birches. In another step, they had reached a still, dark pool and sleeping bright inside was the moon.

"My clan's hahren would often tell me a story about birch trees," Saehin said and a ripple moved over the water. "Would you like to hear it?"  
Solas turned to her with a mildly curious expression. "I am willing to listen, yes."

She laughed quietly at that. "Spirit or illusion of the Fade, you do a very talented impression of him. You should have wrinkled your nose a bit when I mentioned the Dalish, however."

His lips twitched with amusementand he let out a brief chuckle. "I will keep that in mind."

Still smiling, she touched the smooth, papery bark of a nearby tree. As she ran her hand over it, it sloughed off in large curls and fluttered to the ground to be made ghostly and luminous by the moon.

"Mathari was a great and renowned huntress in her clan. Swift with her arrows and true," Saehin began. "One day, she and her lover, Lahanas, wandered away from their clan and made love beneath a silver birch tree. They remained beneath it that night and while they slept, they were set upon by shemlin bandits and Lahanas was slain.

"Grief-stricken, Mathari planted a birch over his grave so that he may live on in its roots and its branches and be one with all things. As she laid the last bit of earth, she swore that one day, when her grief was gentled and all shemlin lay dead, she would return. She then carved many birch arrows and fletched them with raven's feathers and set off on the hunt."

Suddenly, the curls of bark at Saehin's feet took the shape of ravens and flew off in rustling silence. Their thin, pale wings brushed her face and stirred her hair and beyond them, she could see Solas watching her intently.

"Her sorrow never waned," she continued, "and many years later, she knelt before a silver birch tree at a far corner of the world and wept in the darkest pain. 'I have failed you, my love,' she cried to the birch. 'My arrows have turned slow and false. I drew many and hunted long and still these shemlin live.'

"In response, Mathari heard nothing though she waited many hours until eventually she fell asleep with a hollow heart. That night, Lahanas came to her in a dream and spoke. 'My love, it was I that slowed your arrows and turned them false. For you had made them out of my flesh and I did not wish to see your hands stained with blood.'

"'It is blood that deserves to be spilled for taking your life,' Mathari said.

"'My life is the tree and the forest, the earth and the wind through the leaves,' Lahanas told her. 'Where the silver birch is, so am I.'

"When Mathari woke, she touched the bark of the tree and knew her dream to be true. She never again took up the hunt in vengeance.

"From then on, our clan has honored our dead with the birch tree. For like our people, they are all connected and where one is, so are we all."

Solas looked at her with furrowed brow for some time and Saehin was content to let the silence linger. The stars wheeled overhead and eventually he spoke.

"There is a story I would like to share with you, as well," Solas told her as he removed his hood, "if you would hear it."

The wind stirred her hair as she turned to him fully and nodded. "Please."

"Once, a wolf befriended the hares in the fields around his home. When the other wolves hunted them for their meals, he stood against them. They fought for many years until rivers of blood had been filled to overflowing and never again could he return to his pack.

"He turned to wandering the ancient forests of the world. There he found many beautiful and hidden things lost to the veil of time," Solas said and his voice had become impassioned. "He dreamed of sharing these wonders, of telling secrets that had spent too long unspoken, but in all of his travels he had never found another of his kind. He searched for his old friends, the hares, but they had long forgotten him and no longer cared for what he had to say.

"Alone in the night, he howled in furious mourning until even the heavens trembled at his cry and out of them fell a tiny star. Horrified by what he had done, the wolf tried and failed to send the star back where it belonged but it was far too late."

Solas moved closer and gently took her hand. He clasped it between his own and when he opened them, a shining star hung between them. His words were softer now and the melody of them wove in and out of her ears.

"He held the star and waited for it to die but it remained, glowing warm and bright in his hands. Soon, he began to speak to it. Telling it of his many journeys and the things he had seen. To his amazement, the star listened and accepted and spoke back to him. It was then an enduring friendship was born and together they traveled the ages until the end of their days."

His hands moved back to his sides but the star stayed; a glimmering sphere in her palm that faded in and out like a heartbeat. She looked at him and when she met his eyes, she saw the stars reflected back her. Her throat tightened and blinking, she looked down and curled her fingers around her little light only to have it disappear. She let her hand fall, somehow feeling lesser, even knowing the star had never been in the first place.

"I've never heard that one before," she said lowly. "Is it elvhen?"

"Only an ancient remnant from deep within the Fade. It was worthy of remembering."

"It is," she agreed. "Perhaps I will tell it to the real Solas."

He chuckled. "I am certain he is already familiar with it."

Puzzled, she frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I will be happy to discuss it but only once we both _wake up_."

* * *

It was dark and quiet when Solas opened his eyes. It seemed that they had been in the Fade for some time and the others in their encampment had long since fallen asleep. From beyond the open tent, he could still hear activity- the stirring of coals in a banked fire or the heavy steps of a patrolling soldier- but it was all the hushed motions and words reserved for the deep night.

"You...were in my dream."

Her voice was faint and even throatier than usual from disuse. Solas looked over at her through the dark and smiled, pleased that she had not needed to have it explained to her.

"You are correct."

"I did not know that could be done," she murmured and he could hear the wonder in her words.

"For most, it cannot. But with innate talent and sufficient practice, it can become as effortless as breathing."

"Is it something you can teach me?"

"It is possible if you wished to learn."

"I would." She paused and the next words were carefully said. "I wouldn't have thought you fond of stories."

Humming slightly, he shifted and the bells on his wrist tinged. "We all have parts of ourselves that we do not easily share with others."

"Yes." She was quiet for a beat then reached out and took his hand. "Thank you."

He hesitated for only a moment before turning his palm to gently thread her long fingers through his own. They were warm and calloused and gripped his hand with strength. His heart stuttered in his chest.

"I could do no less, lethallin."


End file.
